So, we're going to forget all about the actual dictionary definition of the word retard and all its conjugations because somebody might get their feelings hurt? Retarded means delayed or impeded. What's the big deal? Sounds like these "activists" need a hobby.

There is some name for this in linguistics where a nice neutral term like "retarded" is chosen to replace derogative terms like "moron" and "idiot", but it over time becomes mainly "bad".

I've heard that this is the case in Turkish for words meaning "cucumber". The problem is that what ever the current word for cucumber is it becomes slang for "penis" - so much so that proper women can't use it in polite society. So a new polite word is chosen for "cucumber" and the whole cycle repeats.

It's a medical / technical description for those who have a learning disability; They're mentally retarded. It's a totally legitimate term and has no negative connotations, except the imagined by overly sensitive people.

Cup_O_Jo:I think what is wrong with people today is political correctness.

You do realize that "political correctness" started out as a fairly neutral or even positive term that has had its semantic scope over generalized and now is often used as a broad negative term that has lost much of its meaning?

What's next? Will "politeness" or "consideration" become pejoratives? After all, Republicans have mounted an effort to make "empathy" and "science" dirty words and have destroyed the meaning of "patriotism" and are working on "freedom"..

HairBolus:There is some name for this in linguistics where a nice neutral term like "retarded" is chosen to replace derogative terms like "moron" and "idiot", but it over time becomes mainly "bad".

Here's the problem: almost EVERY word for "stupid" is related to the concept of mental retardation/intellectual disability/whatever. Most of them actually originate in it.

Lunatic: deriving from the mistaken belief insanity was due to lunar influences.Moron: used to mean, medically, someone who was 'intellectually disabled', i.e. of an IQ below a certain threshold.Retarded: sameIdiot: sameInfantile: sameHandicapped: derives from the phrase "cap in hand", referring to those persons who begged for money (i.e. appeared "cap in hand") due to their injuries/disabilities.

The fact is that it's intrinsically undesirable to be of such low IQ as to be 'retarded'. It doesn't mean that person is undesirable or not, but no one would be so deluded as to pretend anyone aspired to be 'retarded' or 'intellectually disabled' or anything of the sort. It is intrinsically insulting to be called less than smart, and that will always - in all languages and cultures - be an insult so long as intelligence has any value (see: Idiocracy).

If this succeeds, all that will happen is that kids will use the phrase 'intellectually disabled' in the same way, eventually. Most of these words - including 'retarded' in particular - were actually introduced into the lexicon to be a PC replacement for a predecessor (retarded replaced moron, if I remember correctly) in the medical language.

Yogimus:We should go back to the old terminoligy of Idiot, Moron, and Imbecile.

STOP CHANGING WORDS. The new word will have the same meaning. And be equally offensive a decade later.

THIS.

Words have a natural tendency to "slide" toward their most negative meanings. Idiot, moron, and imbecile were all official classifications, and then became slurs. So we changed to to "mental retardation", "mentally retarded", and "retarded" ... which have likewise come to be viewed as derogatory terms and now their usage is considered to be politically incorrect.

So we're moving to "intellectually disabled"? Gee, that's never gonna become the slur du jour.

skullkrusher:royone: skullkrusher: yeah, their lives are tough and so are the lives of those who have to care for them. So if those people ask you not to use the word because it is hurtful, you're a gigantic asshole for continuing to use it.

What's the rule, exactly? Is it that I can't use any word for the condition as an insult? Or is there something special about the word "retard"?

Get this, Morons, it's not the word that's offensive, it's the condition and the having to live with the condition. I have a pair of Retarded cousins (twins, didn't get enough oxygen in the womb), and their life sucks out loud in 16.7 million colors whatever word you use for their condition. Changing the language will do precisely dick for them. This sort of busybodied PC idiocy is the functional equivalent of Facebook Slacktivism: Utterly worthless.

Showing the sort of Originality we've come to expect from the Differently-abled there, JBZ. Shouldn't you be queueing up for pudding day about now?--------See, I can use the concept offensively without calling JBZ a Retard or a Republican or a Palin American.

Deoan:Any time we use a word to describe a group of people, that word becomes associated with that group, and then becomes offensive. Retarded means slow, they are generally mentally slower, and so it becomes an apt descriptor. In 30 years the words "Special", "*insert race here-American", and "same-sex" will be offensive, because kids will start using them on the playground as insults. Can't we just, as a society, stop taking so much offense before our whole damn language is a blacklist?